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Rick Perry wakes up the left

Ben and Maggie report on the arrival of liberal "Perry panic" (noun), an intense fear of and opposition to the Texas governor's presidential campaign:

The epidemic of lefty angst isn’t just a matter of specific Perry policies though; it goes to the heart of the liberal worldview. His smashing debut on the presidential stage suggests that the victory of an urban liberal Democrat, Barack Obama, wasn’t a step toward a more progressive nation, but just a leftward swing of an increasingly wild pendulum, now poised to rocket to the right.

“His entry in the race is a signal and a wake-up call,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told POLITICO.

Perry, Sharpton said, “is looking to go to the O.K. Corral and start shooting…. Rather than the left get caught sleeping, we better load up, because he is bringing it.”

For Democrats, the pre-Perry GOP primary process was hardly for the faint of heart, as the other candidates have jockeyed to show who dislikes Obama the most. But even as the primary is fought on conservative turf, liberal leaders say they and their constituents see Perry as far worse than your average, hated Republican, and indeed as bad – if not worse – than his hated predecessor in Austin, George W. Bush. And progressives who might have had a hard time getting worked up about Mitt Romney find themselves struggling for superlatives with which to express their fear of a President Perry.

“His work as governor is unparalleled in its frontal assault on women,” said Siobhan Bennett, the president of the Women’s Campaign Forum, citing statistics on women living in poverty and without health care in Texas, and Perry’s active opposition to abortion. “He has gone farther out on a limb legislatively in his capacity as governor and has been expressly anti-woman in the legislation he has done.”

“He is beyond what we expect from conservative Republicans on the gun issue,” said Dennis Henigan, the acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who cited Perry’s support for gun rights on college campuses and said it was a sharp contrast with Romney’s “moderate” record. Perry’s rise, he said, had already become “a strong mobilizing force” for gun control activists, whose agenda has been largely ignored by the Obama administration.

You mean Rick Perry thinks students and profs have a right to self-protection in class; that they shouldn't be sitting ducks (literally) for some deranged gunman to pick off one by one before the cops arrive? If he supports college campus carry and the Fair Tax (as I've also heard) then I might be able to look the other way on his soft on amnesty approach and vote for him.

Perry, Sharpton said, “is looking to go to the O.K. Corral and start shooting…. Rather than the left get caught sleeping, we better load up, because he is bringing it.” --- Al, you sound like O.K. Corral Sarah herself. Aren't 2 dozen Americans injured at "Congress on your corner" in Tucson enough? Or 40% of AA males in jail in DC, lots of gun use slaughtering young black men enough for you? --- We all need to give these metaphors a long rest.. like a burial.

Whew! People who vote for Republicans are the most confused people in the world.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has some extremist and dangerous ideas. He's open to Texas seceding from the United States. He believes Social Security is "a Ponzi scheme." He doesn't believe in global warming, but believes in teaching "intelligent design" to kids. He's anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. And he opposes the federal income tax, which provides 45% of government revenue.

Then there are Perry's friends. They include neo-Confederates who've proudly endorsed him in Texas elections, preachers like John Hagee, who believes the Holocaust was the fault of Jews, and ultra-right businessmen Harold Simmons and Bob J. Perry, funders of the deceptive Swift Boat ads in 2004, who gave $1.1 million and $2.5 million to Perry's campaigns since 2000.

“His work as governor is unparalleled in its frontal assault on women,” said Siobhan Bennett, the president of the Women’s Campaign Forum

Oh good grief, Siobhan, I am a Dem, but can we give this trash talk a break? Isn't it enough to say Perry supports legislation that suppresses women's rights? "Assault" does tend to imply physical attack, or threat of physical attack. I haven't seen Perry do that.

Whew! People who vote for Republicans are the most confused people in the world.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has some extremist and dangerous ideas. He's open to Texas seceding from the United States. He believes Social Security is "a Ponzi scheme." He doesn't believe in global warming, but believes in teaching "intelligent design" to kids. He's anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. And he opposes the federal income tax, which provides 45% of government revenue.

Then there are Perry's friends. They include neo-Confederates who've proudly endorsed him in Texas elections, preachers like John Hagee, who believes the Holocaust was the fault of Jews, and ultra-right businessmen Harold Simmons and Bob J. Perry, funders of the deceptive Swift Boat ads in 2004, who gave $1.1 million and $2.5 million to Perry's campaigns since 2000.

Yikes! Republicans scare me……

Republicans are generally fine. It is the agenda of the radical right that scares me. Thanks for your civil post, pointing out the facts, damaging enough without having to resort to the hyperbole -- when liberals trash talk, they seem to be imitating right-wingers who are imitating Limbaugh, Beck, Savage, Ingraham, etc.

Every rational person in America should be speaking out against Perry the Pharisee, unless they want a theocrat who does not respect science, workers, women, the poor, children, teachers, etc. as president....

Where is Texas compared to other states? #1 in children living in poverty, #3 in teen pregnancy (so much for his abstinence works idea); where evolution is denounced in favor of creationism.... and Texas ranks near the bottom in education, near the bottom in workers' rights and pay and benefits.... where it is deemed women have no say about their own bodies....

In Texas the theocrats are trying to remake the world in their righteous reich image, an image that has no basis in reality.... or the teaching of Jesus Christ....

Thanks, but, no, thanks. I'll want a government based on equality, liberty, democracy -- not a Christian version of the Taliban....

Republicans aren't "fine". Republicans are some of the most hypocritical people this world has ever known.

Let me put it to you this way: Would you hire a confessed animal hater to run a pet store? No? Then why would you elect politicians who freely admit to despising government?

Republicans rally against regulation of industry, and then America sees how that turns out when BP spills a million barrels of oil in our seas. Republicans will rally against gay people, stripping them of civil rights, and then you find them tapping their toes in airport bathrooms looking for their gay lovers. Republicans will rally against non-existent communists but have no problem driving our economy to the ground with Karl Marx like spending of trillions of tax dollars that they borrowed from China for endless wars against enemies that did not attack us.

After the last ten years of watching Republicans one word stands out as defining them perfectly; hypocrite. A vote for a Republican is literally a vote for the absence of leadership.

Rick Perry doesn't have the Cahunas, savvy, knowledge education or command of the English language president Obama has and would crash and burn by opening his mouth. Hannity and all the talking heads on FOX and other outlets need a "Rectal Enchephalectomies" prior to engaging their tongues. These Yahoos yell at their guests and deflect the real conversation when backed into a corner. Brush Himoff, Hannity and all the limited-minded FOX-hounds bad-mouthing and raising tangential issues are trying to smoke-screen Americans with unfounded lies and disrespectful commentary towards our first Black president! The narrow-minded, know-it-all's do not know-it-all! These Yahoos should raise the heads out of the FOX hole and see the real world and not listen to the the prejudiced and bigoted Sen. Mitch McConnell, the bigoted Republican from Kentucky, the minority leader with the greatest cunning and sharpest knife, signaled his party's true purpose last year when he proclaimed: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."